Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Who Do You Think You Are?

This is not going to be my usual welcome page to readers because these are not usual times. I know that this issue will come through the letterbox of thousands of households that have had to self-isolate, and I hope it provides some distraction from the worries and disruption that we are all facing. Regular readers may notice that we have extended our News section, and removed our What’s On page. My heart goes out to everyone who has spent many months planning and preparing family history events that will now no longer run. You can read more about the disruption to family historians caused by the coronavirus pandemic on page 9. I just want you all to know that we will be here for you throughout these extraordinary times.…

DEBBIE KENNETT Debbie has been writing about genetic genealogy for many years now, and is our regular DNA expert. This month she unpicks the truth about ethnicity reports (page 16). EMMA JOLLY As a genealogist Emma has been on television before, but her appearance on a Swedish programme similar to Heir Hunters inspired her to share the story on page 24. VALERIE SCHNEIDER Valerie returned to her roots in southern Italy where she is a freelance writer, professional genealogist and cappuccino addict. Read her tips on Italian research on page 63.…

FamilySearch makes digital images searchable More than four billion digital record images are now searchable by place on familysearch.org. The world’s largest free family history website holds scans of billions of historic images, but about 80 per cent have not been searchable by name. However, members can now type the name of a city, county, state or country into a new Explore Historical Images tool at familysearch.org/ records/images and view collections of browsable records. Descendants of Scottish nobility identified by DNA Thirty descendants of an ancient Scottish noble family have been found thanks to DNA testing. To commemorate the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, a 1320 proclamation of sovereignty signed by noblemen and landowners, researchers at the University of Strathclyde are using DNA testing to identify the signatories’…

Plans by the UK government to welcome President Patricio Aylwin of Chile with a family tree showing his Welsh roots hit a snag when a genealogist discovered that his great grandfather wasn’t Welsh, according to a newly declassified file. The file, which has just been released by The National Archives, records efforts by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to research Aylwin’s heritage for a state visit in 1991. ‘He was delighted to be in a county from which his forebears had come’ Aylwin’s great grandfather Richard Patrick Aylwin (who later changed his name to Ricardo Camilo Aylwin) emigrated to Chile in 1833 and became British vice-consul at the port of Constitución. Aylwin believed his family to be Welsh. A letter in the file, numbered FCO7/8013, from 7 November 1990…

All Church of England burial ground records will be available to search within five years under an ambitious new laser-scanning survey scheme. Records of the burial grounds for two churches located in West Yorkshire – All Hallows Church in Kirkburton and Emmanuel Church in Shelley – are now available online on http:// kirkburton.burialgrounds.co.uk and http://shelley.burialgrounds.co.uk. The Church plans to survey all 15,000 burial grounds by 2025. Nick Edmonds, the Church of England’s senior media officer, said: “It’s a system that has potential for enormous growth and future usage.” Staff from surveying company Atlantic Geomatics surveyed the two West Yorkshire graveyards using a laser and a camera. The free online databases for each churchyard show a detailed map. Researchers can browse the maps, and search for names. Each burial record includes…

GEDMATCH w gedmatch.com GEDmatch offers a number of free admixture calculators. Display your results as a pie chart, a chromosome painting or a table showing the admixture proportions on each chromosome. DNA.LAND w dna.land In addition to a number of free trait reports, this independent website run by academic researchers provides a colourful ancestry report with a pie chart and a world map. IMPUTE.ME w impute.me This website focuses on health reports, but an ancestry report provides a principal components analysis. There is a voluntary charge of $5 to pay for processing costs.…

FAMILYSEARCH’S SWEDISH WIKI w familysearch.org/wiki/en/ Sweden_Genealogy This wiki page includes links to free records and dozens of tutorials. Particularly useful is the map that connects areas to online records. ARKIVDIGITAL w arkivdigital.net This is the premier subscription site for family historians looking for their Swedish ancestors. It includes church records, a census from 1941, and helpful tutorials in English. MYHERITAGE w myheritage.com Subscription site MyHeritage has baptisms, marriages, burials, Household Examination Books (1840–1947), church records and calendars of Sweden’s knights and nobility.…

AUSTRALIAN RECORDS w trove.nla.gov.au Historical newspapers are vital for tracing regiments’ overseas movements. This free website has Australian newspapers, maps and archives. REGIMENTAL CHAPLAINS’ RECORDS w findmypast.co.uk Trace relations who journeyed overseas while serving in the armed forces. These records cover births, marriages and deaths for 1796–1880. WAR OFFICE RECORDS w nationalarchives.gov.uk Search muster rolls, pay rolls and embarkation records to find family who served in the armed forces from 1732 to 1913.…

Death in service My 3x great uncle Enoch Goldey was a gamekeeper, but he was killed by poachers in 1869. The two culprits were transported. A man of the soil John Jancey Harris, my great great grandfather , was born about 1829. He farmed at Trellech in Monmouthshire , south-east Wales. Charlotte and family Charlotte Preest was widowed at the age of 44, and left to bring up five children on little means. Her second-youngest daughter Florence was born in 1886, and can be seen at the front of this photograph sitting on a footrest. She became a teacher when she grew up, and married my grandfather Albert James when he was home on leave from France in January 1915. The six sisters This photograph shows my paternal great great…

I have a passion for oral history, having interviewed hundreds of evacuees who spent the war years in Britain plus those who lived under occupation. Included in this number are children and adults who came to England from the Channel Islands and Gibraltar in 1940. Indeed, about 17,000 Guernsey evacuees fled their homes just days before Germany occupied the Channel Islands. I have published four books on the British Home Front, organised commemorative events and contributed towards several documentaries. One of my favourite websites is that of the Second World War Experience Centre (war-experience.org). The centre, which is based in Otley, West Yorkshire, is a charity that collects and preserves the personal testimony of men, women and children who lived through the Second World War. The centre’s archive holds recorded…

The idea of landlords harks back to the wealthy aristocratic landowners and landed gentry of history, who inherited vast agricultural estates. For centuries, a largely rural society followed the three-tier model of landowner, tenant farmer and labourer. Land ownership was the exclusive reserve of the privileged few. The onset of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to a new breed of smaller-scale urban landlords and landladies, who might have a spare room to let out, or perhaps even several properties, to supplement their income. Their ascent was facilitated by the growth of towns and cities, and the resultant spread of suburbia. Industry generated capital for investment and new jobs in urban centres, while railways created a mobile workforce in need of lodgings. Victorian Britain was an age of expansion. The population…

One of Family Tree Maker 2019’s most interesting new features is TreeVault. It’s a subscription-based add-on for FTM – free for the first year, £1.99/month thereafter – that provides a secure online backup for your tree. But doesn’t FamilySync already offer this feature? The answer is yes, but not everything in your tree is saved to ancestry.co.uk, plus you must remember to sync manually. In contrast, TreeVault saves every last scrap of information in your tree, plus seamlessly uploads changes as they’re made so that your backup is always fully up to date. TreeVault also offers several added features, from historical weather reports to an option for naming a successor to inherit your research should you need to pass it on for any reason. This month’s step-by-step guide reveals how…

1 FORMAT There are two death records on every page. 2 THE DECEASED The name of Giuseppe Garibaldi is given surname first. Note the inclusion of his title Generale. 3 DATES There are usually two dates on these records: the date that the event was recorded at the town office, given at the beginning of the entry, and in this section the date that the event actually occurred. Garibaldi died on 2 June 1882. 4 OCCUPATION The occupation of the deceased (here generale) is provided where known. 5 AGE Garibaldi’s age is given as anni settantacinque – 75 years old. In fact, he was 74, since he was born on 4 July 1807. 6 PARENTS His parents Domenico Garibaldi and Rosa Raimondi are listed. The use of fu indicates that…

An ancestor’s change of name can perplex the most experienced family historians. The situation worsens when you factor in time’s ability to fade or confuse memories, meaning you have a real challenge on your hands. Donna Tankard has overcome all of this in a tenacious 14-year search. She was given a treasure trove of photographs by her grandmother, and they helped her to find a long-lost great aunt. MY BRICK WALL As a child, I loved spending Saturday afternoons baking and knitting with my grandmother Mabel Price. We often looked through a small collection of old photographs that she kept in a little black wallet. One of them was of her only sibling, Lucy Rachel White. Grandma told me that Lucy died aged 21 after giving birth to her son…

William Whiteley arrived in London from Yorkshire in 1855 with just a few pounds in his pocket. A draper by trade, by 1867 Whiteley had established his eponymous department store from a cluster of shops on Westbourne Grove in Bayswater. The self-dubbed ‘Universal Provider’, Whiteley took great pride in the wide range of goods that made his store the Harrods of its day. Within 20 years, the store boasted 30 departments, 6,000 staff and illustrious clients from British and overseas monarchies. Whiteley was generally thought to be a kind, family man who was considerate to his customers and staff. However, the carefully constructed public image was a far cry from his private demeanour. He was a bully and a tyrant, hated by local tradesmen. He ill-treated his employees, and had…

When the Mayflower set sail for America in 1620, it carried the four young children of Katherine More of Larden Hall in Shipton, Shropshire. The baptisms of Elenor, Jasper, Richard and Mary are recorded in the Shipton parish register, which today survives in Shropshire Archives. And the sad story of their banishment by Katherine’s husband Samuel, who suspected he was not their biological father, is being remembered at various events across the county this year as part of the Mayflower 400 Project (shropshiremayflower.com). Two of the four children died during the voyage; a third passed away after arrival in America. Richard survived, going on to have a long career as a sailor, ship owner and merchant. He also seems to have been a bigamist, since records indicate that he had…

The poet and writer JEAN SPRACKLAND discusses her latest book These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards How did you become interested in graveyards? I’ve always felt comfortable in them, and I’ve always felt that they were places where I was able and allowed to go and be free to think my own thoughts. There’s also this sense that a graveyard is a kind of archive. It’s a place where you have access to stories that aren’t really available or documented anywhere else, so I’ve always been interested in the inscriptions that I’ve read. Some of those names have stayed with me, and haunted me over many years. The book is partly about going back and following those leads, and finding out about those forgotten individuals. That’s an approach many…

We put so much faith in science nowadays that it is easy to think that the percentages provided in ethnicity reports are based on fact, when they are actually just informed guesses. Debbie explains on page 16 which percentages you can trust, and which you need to take with a pinch of salt. Using this information can help you with your research, and has also inspired me to upload my results to other sites to see what they think.…

THANKS FOR THE NEWSLETTER I am such a lucky person! I followed the link in your weekly e-newsletter to read more about the Church of England burial grounds, and was amazed and delighted to find that one of the first two burial grounds to be scanned is All Hallows at Kirkburton. My Carter ancestors came from there. The first grave I looked for was that of Edwin Carter, my great great grandfather. The photos are very clear, the map will greatly assist me when I have an opportunity to visit, and I will spend the next few days gleaning as much as I can from the details on the website. It’s times like this that make your emails such a wonderful thing. Thanks! Mags, by email EDITOR REPLIES: Glad you…

Subscribers to the family history site findmypast. co.uk will be able to trace their ancestors around the world more easily thanks to the addition of English-language newspapers published in countries across the Commonwealth. Since 2012, Findmypast has offered ‘Pro’ subscribers access to a huge collection of newspapers from the British Newspaper Archive (BNA), which is also available on its sister website at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. However, a ‘Pro’ subscription will now also include newspapers from Canada, India, Pakistan, Jamaica and Barbados as they are added to the website during 2020. Tamsin Todd, CEO of Findmypast, said: “Newspapers supplement the facts of our family histories with rich stories – in them we might find a picture of the place an ancestor lived or worked, or what was happening in sports, politics and entertainment on…

A secret entrance to Parliament used by MPs – including graffiti by Victorian workmen – has been rediscovered by historians. The doorway and passageway was installed in 1660/1661 for the coronation banquet of Charles II. It was rediscovered following the 1834 fire at the Palace of Westminster, but the door was bricked up in 1851. Intriguingly, the historians found that pencilled graffiti by the workmen who carried out the bricking-up still survives. It gives their names as Tom Porter, Richard Condon, James Williams, Henry Terry, Thomas Parker and Peter Dewal. The men, who would have been unable to vote at the time, sign themselves as “Real Democrats”, perhaps an indication of support for the Chartist movement. Dr Mark Collins, Parliament’s estate historian, said he “would love to hear from any…

Most of us feel that family history is about more than names and dates – it’s also about experiences and the circumstances of people’s lives. When oral historians interview older folk about their childhood, a topic very often raised is food. Most of us have memories – good or bad – of what we had to eat, the foods we liked or disliked, whether or not our mother was a good cook (!), family meals and feast days, and the first time we ate, or even saw, a particular type of food. Today people in their 80s often recall their first banana, that weird import which was unknown for long wartime years, or the glorious sight of an orange, its vivid colour and wonderful smell and taste brightening the dreary…

Ethnicity is a reflection of shared ancestry based on social and cultural practices. Ethnic groups may be linked by a religious affiliation, a shared linguistic heritage or a common geographical origin. Ethnicity cannot be detected by DNA, but there is sometimes an overlap with a person’s genetic ancestry. For example, people who share the same heritage will often live in the same places and marry people from similar backgrounds. Ethnicity was historically used as a synonym for race, but the meanings have diverged over time. Ethnicity differs from race in that individuals can choose how they wish to self-identify, and decide whether or not to express the cultural practices associated with their ethnicity. In contrast, artificial categories of race are imposed upon individuals, and are often based on perceived physical…

ARCHIVES TYNE AND WEAR ARCHIVES a Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4JA t 0191 277 2248 w twarchives.org.uk The archive is a great place to research your Tyneside roots. VIDEO ARVINGE OKÄND The one-hour episode The Lighthouse-keeper’s Daughter can be seen online at svtplay.se/video/ 24593464/arvinge-okand until 16 June 2020. Although the programme is in Swedish, there are many interviews conducted in English, including one between Emma and Kattis Ahlström about 11 minutes from the start. WEBSITES CENTRAL SOLDIERS’ REGISTER w ep.liu.se/databases/soldat register/default.en.aspx Searchable in English, the Centrala Soldatregistret is a free database covering soldiers who enlisted between 1682 and 1901. New soldiers are added regularly. RIKSARKIVET w riksarkivet.se/genealogy The website of Sweden’s national archives offers guidance on Swedish genealogy as well as details of the various locations…

I’ve found two potential marriages for my 3x great grandfather. Which is the right one? Q I inherited a jug given by (William) James Curtis, my great great grandfather (born c1820), to Lucy Dennis, his future wife. James died aged 30. His death certificate names him as William a “mariner”, the cause of death “apoplexy”, and he died on 18 November 1849 “off the north forland on board the schooner John Weavel of Hastings”. His father was also called James. I found two possible marriages for James senior, one to Elizabeth Quilter in Abberton in 1813 and one to Sarah Bibby in Abberton in 1818. In the 1841 census, I found a James Curtis, aged 53, living with William and Susannah Quilter in Hythe Street, Colchester, where Lucy Dennis lived.…

Is this a photograph of my grandfather in the RAMC? Q My grandfather, Thomas Henry Butler, enlisted in the Army in February 1899 at 19 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He went to South Africa in January 1900. I inherited a box of mementoes from this time that included a picture of a young soldier. When he enlisted, my grandfather was serving in the 3rd Middlesex Regiment of the Militia. Can you tell me if it’s him in the photo? Marilyn Healy A This isn’t an easy photo to be definite about. The quality isn’t good, and there are few positive points for identification. It’s almost certainly from the period of the Boer War of 1899–1902, but after that it gets harder. Part of the problem comes from…

THE BEVIN BOYS ASSOCIATION w bevinboysassociation.co.uk The association commemorates the role of about 48,000 ‘Bevin Boys’ in boosting coal production. BOMB SIGHT w bombsight.org Explore a bomb census of London during the Second World War via an interactive map. The National Archives has produced a guide to the wider bomb census records: bit.ly/tna-bombs. BRITISH EVACUEES ASSOCIATION w evacuees.org.uk Find out more about the work of the association and the memorial to evacuees at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION w cwgc.org Discover the details of 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died during the Second World War as a result of enemy action. EVACUEE ARCHIVE w bit.ly/evac-arch Discover a collection of written memoirs, oral history interviews and research material. HOME SWEET HOME FRONT w homesweethomefront.co.uk Read about the…

BOOKS Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England Roy and Lesley Adkins Abacus, 2013 This fascinating insight into life 200 years ago is packed with primary sources for further investigation, including personal letters and newspaper reports. Landlord and Tenant in Urban Britain, 1838–1918 David Englander Clarendon Press, 1983 This authority on the subject cites a wealth of primary sources and provides useful statistics. MUSEUM MUSEUM OF THE HOME w museumofthehome.org.uk This former almshouse in Hoxton, East London, is due to reopen this summer, and will demonstrate how homes have evolved during the past 400 years. Follow @museumofthe home on Twitter for updates.…

FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org This free website from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains billions of records. Its Italy portal includes 18 short instructional videos. ANTENATI w antenati.san.beniculturali.it/?lang=en Here you can browse digital images of millions of civil records of births, marriages and deaths from 64 of Italy’s provinces – and the number is growing. ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/places/europe/italy Ancestry has its own “Italy family history research page” listing its collections for the country, although many of its records are available for free on familysearch.org.…

STEP ONE Click ‘DNA’ on the menu bar at ancestry. co.uk to find out more information and to order a test kit. This usually costs £79 (plus P&P), but the price is frequently discounted, as is the case here. STEP TWO The kit includes full instructions, a saliva-collection tube and a prepaid envelope. Take a cheek swab and post the sample to Ancestry. You should receive your results within six to eight weeks. STEP THREE Ancestry will email a link to your results, including your geographic origins. The site will also identify potential relatives by comparing your results with others who have taken an AncestryDNA test.…

BOOKS A Very British Revolution: 150 Years of John Lewis Jonathan Glancey Laurence King, 2014 Glancey traces the 150-year history of John Lewis with contemporary illustrations and photographs. Department Stores Claire Masset Shire Publications, 2010 Masset gives a comprehensive account of the subject. Victorian Shopping Maurice Baren Michael O’Mara, 1998 The author looks at the origins of shopping, and how it changed during the Victorian era. WEBSITES BRITISH LIBRARY w bl.uk/catalogues/evanion The British Library’s Evanion Collection holds many examples of ephemera relating to shopping and department stores. Search its catalogue here. BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk Search for advertisements, as well as articles on shopping and the plight of shop-girls. BRITISH PATHÉ w britishpathe.com Highlights include Window Fashion Parade (1948, bit.ly/ wind-parade ), which shows how a store would…

c1070 Shrewsbury Castle is built by the first Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery during the reign of William the Conqueror. 1646 Sir Michael Woodhouse surrenders the Royalist stronghold Ludlow Castle to Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War. 1709 Abraham Darby smelts iron ore using coking coal in the village of Coalbrookdale. His process helps to pave the way for the Industrial Revolution. 1757 Industrialist John Wilkinson erects a blast furnace at Willey, a village south-west of Broseley in Shropshire. 1771 Mary Bosanquet Fletcher writes to John Wesley, the co-founder of Methodism. She is credited with persuading him to allow women to preach in public. 1779 Thomas Farnolls Pritchard designs the world’s first cast-iron bridge. The Iron Bridge opens near Coalbrookdale in 1781, built from about 380 tons of…

CADWALLADER This name derives from the Welsh words for battle cad and leader gwaladr. GITTENS The name Gittens is found all over the East Midlands. HOTCHKISS Approximately 40 per cent of all of the Hotchkiss namesakes recorded in the 1891 census lived in Shropshire. PARTON This name derives from the Old English for pear orchard. RALPHS This patronymic from Ralph is particularly common in Lancashire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. SHUKER Shropshire was the location of 30 per cent of all of the Shukers who were recorded in the 1891 census. SPEAKE This common Shropshire name is actually associated with Speke, a township that is located in Lancashire. TIPTON This habitational name derives from a Staffordshire parish recorded in the Domesday Book as Tibintone. WELLINGS Just under 300 Wellings were recorded in…

THE STERLING AFFAIR A GENEALOGICAL CRIME MYSTERY NATHAN DYLAN GOODWIN Independently published, 392 pages, £10.49 This book is the eighth in Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s series of crime novels about the investigations of Morton Farrier, a forensic genealogist. It involves two cases: one that requires Morton to investigate the true identity of a man who had assumed another man’s name, and another related to his own family history. The latter is an unnecessary added complication to an already complex storyline. The reader is taken back to three different time periods, and follows three people including Maurice Duggan, who Morton is investigating. This part of the storyline covers more than half of the book and would have benefited from being a standalone spy thriller based around the events of the Suez Crisis…

ADVERTISING t 0117 300 8803 e andy.williams@immediate.co.uk EDITORIAL t 0117 300 8621 e wdytyaeditorial@immediate.co.uk Q&A QUERIES e wdytyaquestions@immediate.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS t 03330 162120* t +44 1604 973728 (overseas subscribers) e wdytya@buysubscriptions.com WDYTYA ? APP SUPPORT e wdytyadigital@buysubscriptions.com WEBSITE QUERIES e wdytyaeditorial@immediate.co.uk *UK calls will cost the same as other standard fixed-line numbers (starting 01 or 02) and are included as part of any inclusive or free minutes allowances (if offered by your phone tariff). Outside of free call packages call charges from mobile phones will cost between 3p and 55p per minute. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am–6pm and Saturday 9am–1pm.…

Former Yorkshire railway workers are invited to share their memories in a new oral history project from North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR). The heritage railway line is hoping to interview people who worked on the Pickering to Whitby railway before 1965, including signalmen, station staff, platelayers and ticketing clerks, as well as their families. Jennifer Halmshaw, chair of education and education champion for the Yorkshire’s Magnificent Journey Project, said the aim is to “showcase life on the railway more than 50 years ago”. Volunteers are also sought to help transcribe the interviews, with can be done remotely. To get involved, email learning@ nymr.co.uk or call 01751 473799, ext. 248.…

Family history volunteers helped to break down brick walls using open data in Free UK Genealogy’s very first ‘Genealo-thon’. The charitable incorporated organisation, which runs the three websites freebmd.org.uk, freereg.org.uk and freecen.org.uk, held the remote-volunteering day on Open Data Day on 7 March. Volunteers were matched up with members of the public who’d submitted family history brick walls, and attempted to solve them using free websites such as the Free UK Genealogy sites and familysearch.org. Denise Colbert, engagement coordinator at Free UK Genealogy, said that 50 volunteers registered to take part, solving an estimated 12 brick walls.…

The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is teaming up with FamilySearch (family search.org ), the free family history site, to digitise UK family histories. Over the next two years the organisations will digitise 9,000 family history books and more than 5,000 genealogy pamphlets, offprints and unpublished tracts from SoG’s library. FamilySearch will provide equipment and personnel, working in the society’s Upper Library with SoG volunteers and cataloguers. SoG will have exclusive use of the scans for an agreed period, making them accessible in the society’s library and on its website where they are out of copyright.…

DNA testing has now become an integral part of family history research. For genealogy purposes it’s the list of cousin matches that is the most important part of the test, but all of the companies also provide a biogeographical ancestry report where they try to assign our DNA to different countries or regions of the world. These reports are becoming increasingly granular in nature. They can sometimes help to inform your research, and will occasionally lead to surprise discoveries. HOW DO COMPANIES CALCULATE YOUR ETHNICITY? ‘It is now possible to get quite granular results for people of European ancestry’ Each company tries to put together a panel of reference populations. These are modern individuals who are deemed to be representative of a particular country, region or population. The samples are…

On the 1901 census of England and Wales, 5,623 people are recorded as having been born in Sweden. A significant number of them are seamen, recorded on vessels or onshore. The areas with the highest Swedish populations were London, Durham, Lancashire and Northumberland. Some Swedish men may have worked on land, in ports or mines (or other heavy industries), while others earned their living on boats, and women such as Clara found work as domestic servants. As Swedish sailors travelled between ports, some will have left local women pregnant, although any foreign paternity may have been hidden within a marriage to a local man. Another reason why Swedes arrived in north-east England was that they were on their way to the USA, but ran out of money and could afford…

Ever since he was a boy Paul Darran has taken great pride in his family’s contribution to the armed forces. “My aunt Rene used to regale me with stories about our military ancestors,” Paul says. “I loved hearing about their service in India, the World Wars and the Boer War. One of our ancestors even fought at Waterloo. “Rene was ill at the time, so as a child I would carry round her shopping. I’d get a slice of chocolate Swiss roll and we would look through photographs of my grandfather and great grandfathers in uniform. I was so inspired by them that I joined the Army myself at the age of 17. “It’s a thrill to have discovered more about the ancestors Rene told me about. All of this…

What does this wedding photograph reveal about my great grandparents? Q I’ve discovered a photograph of my maternal great grandmother, Isabella Reynolds, at her wedding to Robert William Pearce on 23 May 1904 when she was 29 and Robert was 24. Apart from them both looking a little glum, could you tell me anything else about the photograph? Nigel Mapp A By the time of your ancestors’ marriage in the early 1900s, open-air wedding photography was rapidly becoming popular, and your portrait was probably taken by a professional hired to come out to photograph the couple’s special day. This garden setting will be their reception venue – perhaps a pub, or the family garden. Your ancestors are formally posed in this tableau-like scene, the bride carefully displaying her wedding ring.…

The children of Charles & Mary Ann Daniels bit.ly/cm-daniels According to the 1911 census, Charles Daniels and Mary Ann Hewitson, who married in December 1872, had eight children born alive, six of whom had died by 1911, with only two still being alive. Try as I might I can only find four children: Charles Daniel Daniels 1873 at Islington, James George 1877 at Edmonton, Charles William 1888 at Fulham and William 1892 at Fulham. I also have appropriate baptisms for George James, Charles William and William. I would appreciate some help with the remaining four children. SDV What happened to William Dingle? bit.ly/william-dingle I’d love some help in finding out where one of my ancestors disappeared to if anyone fancies a challenge, it’s stumped me for years. William Dingle was…

Bethlem Royal Hospital, once nicknamed ‘Bedlam’, was founded in London in 1247 and has been a working mental hospital since 1400, using changing ideas about psychiatry to treat its patients. Records of the hospital’s long history are kept by the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, whose archivist, David Luck, tells us how an 1842 report captures the hospital in a state of change. TELL ME ABOUT THE DOCUMENT… It’s an annual report that covers the year 1841. It was produced in 1842 by Dr Alexander Morrison for the Bethlem and Bridewell Board of Governors, who were in charge of Bethlem Hospital. At that point Bethlem was not obliged to come under the scrutiny of the Commissioners of Lunacy. But it was coming under increasing pressure to adopt a more scientific…

WEBSITES COMMANDO VETERANS ARCHIVE w commandoveterans.org You can download an explanation of each list section from the CVA’s forum at bit.ly/cva-lists. DISCOVERY w discovery.national archives.gov.uk Find unit War Diaries using The National Archive’s search engine. Use the ‘Advanced search’ option, but keep your search terms simple (see the Top Tip). FINDMYPAST w findmypast.co.uk Findmypast has digitised Royal Artillery attestation ledgers (1883–1942), and Royal Artillery casualty cards for soldiers (not officers) who died during the Second World War. WW2TALK w ww2talk.com This forum is a great resource for anyone whose relation served in the Second World War. There is a detailed discussion of X Lists, with examples, at bit.ly/ww2talk-x.…

Census records are on subscription websites, and may list “landlord” or “landlady” as a profession. Many who rented out rooms may not have recorded it as their main occupation, but you will see unrelated adults at the same address and listed as “lodgers” or “boarders”. Electoral registers are typically more useful in recording property ownership or listing the name and address of an individual’s landlord. Historical newspaper articles feature tenancy disputes – see britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. While of limited value in a blind search, HM Land Registry records (retrieved at bit.ly/ gov-land for a small fee) can be extremely useful as you focus in on a specific property. The National Archives’ website nationalarchives. gov.uk also provides details on search records related to property ownership and occupation. Finally the 1910 Lloyd George Domesday…

The former EastEnders star remembers her maternal grandfather Remo, but knew little about his family’s origin in Italy until episode three of series 11, which first aired on 21 August 2014. His father Adelmo Santi left Tuscany as a teenager in 1913 and ended his days in Fishburn, County Durham. The Santi family originates in the hill town of Barga in western Tuscany. It was a poor area in the early 20th century, and as a result many people moved to Glasgow, including Adelmo. He became a successful business owner and ice-cream maker who was called “the richest man in Fishburn”. However, after Italy joined the Second World War in 1940, male Italian immigrants in the UK over 16 years old were declared “enemy aliens” and rounded up for internment.…

BOOKS The Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide Melanie D Holtz Family Tree Books, 2017 This is a good introduction for family historians without much experience. Italian Genealogical Records Trafford R Cole Ancestry, 1995 This is an excellent resource for anyone researching their family’s Italian roots. WEBSITES ITALIAN SURNAME LOCATIONS w tinyurl.com/italy-names Use the page’s “cerca un cognome” text field to search for the distribution of specific surnames around Italy. PARISH ARCHIVES w bit.ly/italy-parish If you want to research your ancestors beyond 1809, you will need to contact the local parish. This website lists their contact details. TRANSCRIBED VITAL RECORDS OF ITALIAN TOWNS w sersale.org/comunes.htm Although some of the information is now out of date, this alphabetical list of Italian towns whose records have been transcribed, with links to where they’ve…

1891 PRINCE OF WALES IN GAMBLING SCANDAL The social life of the Prince of Wales was under the spotlight this month when he was called to give evidence in a high-society gambling trial. The scandal came about when Prince Albert, always known by his intimates as Bertie, was attending the Doncaster Races during the St Leger week in 1890. He was staying at Tranby Croft near Hull, the home of wealthy shipowner Arthur Wilson. The gentlemen assembled there played baccarat. This was questionable behaviour, because baccarat was illegal in Britain for being a gambling game of chance not skill. Bertie was so familiar with it that he brought his own baccarat counters and was banker for the game that the friends played. Conviviality wore thin, however, when one gentleman was…

Five of the best free resources for researchers with ancestors from Shropshire, including burial records, parish registers and a First World War roll of honour BURIAL RECORDS w oswestrycemeteryproject.org.uk/search.html Search a database of burials in the cemetery, which includes the grave’s location and, in many cases, a photograph of the headstone. PARISH REGISTERS w familysearch.org/search/collection/3155854 Search christenings, marriages and burials (1538–1918). You can also download 112 volumes from the Shropshire Parish Register Society at the Internet Archive: bit.ly/ia-sprs. WW1 ROLL OF HONOUR w www.shropshireremembers.org.uk This commemorative project includes a searchable copy of a roll of honour for local soldiers who fought in the First World War. TRADE DIRECTORIES w bit.ly/special-shrops The University of Leicester’s Special Collections Online website includes 12 Shropshire directories, one a complete Kelly’s volume published in 1913.…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES BISHOP’S CASTLE HERITAGE RESOURCE CENTRE a Chapel Yard, Bishop’s Castle SY9 5DE t 01588 630556 w bchrc.co.uk The centre is owned and run by the House on Crutches Museum Collection Trust. Its resources include parish registers, census returns and trade directories. BRIDGNORTH LIBRARY a 67 Listley Street, Bridgnorth WV16 4AW t 01746 763358 e bridgnorth.library@shropshire. gov.uk w shropshire.gov.uk/libraries/ find-a-library/bridgnorthlibrary Like all libraries across the county, Bridgnorth Library provides access to ancestry. co.uk, britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk and findmypast.co.uk. A local history collection here mainly comprises books on Bridgnorth and the wider Shropshire area, dating from the 19th century to the present. HEREFORDSHIRE ARCHIVE AND RECORDS CENTRE a Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA t 01432 260750 e archives@herefordshire.gov.uk w herefordshire.gov.uk/archives Because parts of Shropshire are covered by the…

APP ANCESTRYDNA  iOS/Android Free The family history website ancestry.co.uk has one of the world’s largest DNA databases – and it’s now available via an app that lets you access it from your mobile device. Services offered include activating your DNA kit, viewing your Ethnicity Estimate pie chart, and receiving alerts when you match with new relatives. DOWNLOAD OXFORDSHIRE 1823 AND 1844 PIGOT’S DIRECTORY S&N Genealogy £8.95; bit.ly/pigots-oxf Pigot’s Directory is a useful census substitute for tracing ancestors in major Oxfordshire towns. Its contents include local listings of major professions, nobility, gentry and clergy; information about transport, schools, public services and public houses; and background historical and topographical information. PODCAST LEEDS CASTLE’S HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS Podcast services Free Leeds Castle in Kent is now one of the few historic houses in Britain…

INDIA OFFICE RECORDS Olivia’s 4x great grandfather, Richard Campbell Bazett, worked for the East India Company. We were able to find an entry for his marriage to Margaret Ann Hampton in the Biographical Index on the India Office website indiafamily.bl.uk, and an image of the actual marriage record in the India Office collection on findmypast.co.uk. LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES CATALOGUE Olivia continued looking into the life of Richard Campbell Bazett. After India he returned to live in London. A search through the catalogue of the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) drew up records relating to his divorcing Margaret on the grounds of adultery, before he married Olivia’s 4x great grandmother Sarah. You can search LMA’s catalogue for your own ancestors at search.lma.gov.uk. PARLIAMENTARY ARCHIVES CATALOGUE Prior to 1857 divorces were only granted…

As a youngster in the 1940s, I was captivated by my great aunt Annie’s collection of stuffed birds, butterflies and other animals,” says Howard Frost. “She even had a platypus. “Also, her sister, my grandma Ada, had framed displays of insects on her wall, and I was particularly attracted to the large blue morpho butterfly. It was bigger than my own hand.” ‘Alfred supplied the Natural History Museum in London with specimens from 1893 to 1901’ Howard’s fascination with the natural world grew, and he became Yorkshire’s recorder for butterflies and the author of two books on entomology. After retiring from teaching, he began delving into his family history. “I remembered Aunt Annie talking about Alfred and Thomas, who had something to do with the butterflies. I couldn’t remember who…